Introductory Chapter 



minutes. He was head on and had seen us, but 

 I wanted a heart shot and eventually got it. No 

 one moved. 



The smallest clump of grass will enable you to 

 drop down and then take out your glasses and 

 decide if his head is worth having or not. On 

 very, very few occasions is it safe for every one 

 to stop and begin pointing. I hate a shikari who 

 points ! Let him get you behind the nearest 

 bush and then he can do what he likes — it takes 

 a lot of teaching though ! As a general rule the 

 animal stands and watches one for a bit. If he 

 makes off he will more often than not stand 

 again twenty or thirty yards farther on, so one 

 should be always ready for that shot. 



Staying motionless is to my mind most im- 

 portant ; also, when stalking any animal, carry 

 your rifle either at the " trail," but with the 

 muzzle pointing upwards, or at the "present." 

 The latter is preferable. If one has the muzzle 

 pointing downwards the sunlight is bound to 

 flash off the best browned rifle in the world. I 

 have now a Mannlicher with the top of the 

 barrel left roughened, but even then the smooth 

 oily parts of the bolt give the show away if I 

 carry it with the barrel pointing downwards. In 

 certain cases of game going suddenly off with 

 a rush, I am sure it must have been the flash 

 from the bright parts of the rifle, as there was at 

 the time nothing else to account for it. 



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